ASP.NET Core Interview Question #150

What are key security best practices for ASP.NET Core applications?

Authentication, Authorization & Security Mid-Level Intermediate

Quick Interview Answer

Use HTTPS, secure authentication mechanisms, explicit authorization policies, least privilege, anti-forgery protection for applicable browser requests, and parameterized database access. Treat all external input as untrusted and rely on context-appropriate output encoding.

Detailed Explanation

Keep framework and package dependencies patched, protect secrets outside source control, avoid exposing detailed production errors, log security-relevant events without logging secrets, and configure cookies, CORS, forwarded headers, and data protection correctly for the deployment architecture.

Security is layered: no single feature replaces secure coding, secure configuration, infrastructure controls, monitoring, and regular review.

Code Example

if (!app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
    app.UseHsts();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseAuthorization();